The main manifestations of plume heads on the earth's surface are a number of so-called Large Igneous Provinces or LIPs. These consist of very large areas of basalt, either as plateau basults on land (e.g. the Deccan Traps of India) or large submarine plateaus (e.g. Kerguelen Plateau) or smaller submarine edifices entirely below the present surface of the oceans. Often these features are accompanied by dyke swarms and/or igneous intrusions. When dated, the main features usually cluster around a rather short time interval, indicating a brief but intense period of magmatic activity at the time the plume head first 'struck'. Later plume activity is often less intense but, nevertheless, long-lived. Trails of plume activity, often with some periods of rejuvenation, are found across the ocean floors (e.g. the Walvis Ridge off southwest Africa). Minor oceanic islands, still with occasional volcanic activity, can be found (e.g. Bouvet island) associated with mantle plumes that broke out more than 180 million years ago. A number of hotspots show similar trails (e.g. Cameroon volcanic line) but lack the large areas of initial extrusion.

The animation shows the development of the LIP record over time, 200 to 0 Ma, based on our latest Mantle Plume Reference Frame model that places the Bouvet ('Karoo') plume central in Gondwana disruption. A fuller explanation is given in Research Update No.21 (presently under revision). Areas of basalt are shown in red-brown, appearing at a time that reflects the age-dates published, where available. Some of the known dyke swarms are shown as purple lines (e.g. the Okavango dyke swarm in southern Africa) and a few large intrusions are purple with a red outline (e.g. Dufek in Antarctica). Many islands and submarine features are too small to show at this scale. It should be remembered that erosion has probably removed much of the volcanic sequences on land and it is only the present-day outlines of plateaus that are shown.

The animation also shows the travels of the three continental fragments around the CAMP and Kerguelen plumes (blue-filled triangles) respectively and the travels of the several fragments surrounding the Bouvet plume (blue-filled circles). Note how they all move away from the plume head over time, carried by the convection of the mantle.

Last update: 2025 August 15